


Edge of a Revolution

by SarahSecret666



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 14:27:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6708403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahSecret666/pseuds/SarahSecret666
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Police Procedural AU! Detectives Rogers and Barnes are part of a team to investigate a mysterious crime organization known only as HYDRA. But when they lose one of their own, are they prepared to fight back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Partly inspired by one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, Edge of a Revolution by Nickelback

The blond one crossed his muscular arms and leaned against the brick wall of the interrogation room. He had on a light blue bottom-up with the sleeves rolled up and khaki pants. Almost bored, he glanced from the thin, nervous piece of shit in a tracksuit to his partner, who was almost six feet of pure muscle. His partner glared across the table underneath his long hair. Tracksuit nervously swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he tried to keep his cool. 

"Let's not do this again," Steve said, pulling out a chair next to Bucky and looking over at their suspect. "My partner here, he's got a little bit of an anger problem, and a hell of an arm. So make things a little easier for yourself and just cooperate, eh? I'm Detective Rogers, and this is my partner Detective Barnes." 

Bucky glared and grunted as Steve thumped him on the back. He played his part as bad cop well; his appearance was intimidating enough, but he liked to put on a show just for fun. It gave him a slightly sadistic pleasure to see suspects tremble in fear in front of him, though Steve did most of the talking. 

He discreetly yet playfully grabbed at Steve's thigh under the table, earning a gentle squeeze of the hand and a look that said, "Later." He almost grinned, but remembered the task at hand. 

"OKAY OKAY! Just call him off and I'll tell you everything you want to know!"

Steve raised his eyebrows as he looked toward Bucky. "Why don't you go grab our friend here some water? He seems a little high strung."

Bucky smirked as he clanged the metal chair to the table in a way that made Tracksuit flinch. 

"Talk." Steve said. 

Tracksuit gulped. "Look, I'm just a dealer. I ain't nowhere near the top where your guy is. I've never even seen the boss man. All I've heard is some weird shit, rumors from people above me, but below him."

Steve waited, taking in the sight before him, weighing the odds that this information was legitimate. It was the closest lead they'd gotten in their investigation into the organization only known as HYDRA. Like their informant, they were only running off speculation, rumors from everyone from the local grocer all the way up to the NSA. 

SHIELD was separate from all that in their own way. Working as a specialized FBI unit, they investigated any and all things that the laymen couldn't even dream of handling. 

Seated before Steve was 22-year old high school dropout turned drug dealer Buddy Howell. He looked like the typical douchebag, like he had a girlfriend still in high school and too many issues to count. Sweat covered the man's face as he continued, restlessly wringing his hands and shaking his legs beneath the table. Obvious signs of withdrawal. From what, Steve couldn't say. 

A knock at the door took his attention from Buddy. His boss, Inspector Fury, whose one eye glared around him, entered, followed by Agents Maria Hill and Phil Coulson. "We'll be taking Mr. Howell here to Dr. Banner. His lawyer has requested that he seek medical attention," said Fury, with a cool edge to his voice. Steve crossed his arms, but stepped aside to let the agents pass. 

"Consider it a break Rogers. Your boyfriend's waiting for you outside," Fury said only half jokingly on his way out.


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky smirked as Steve made his way out of the interrogation room into the locker room. He smacked his ass as Steve crossed the threshold before following the blond in, careful to close the door and leave his tie peeking out from beneath, the equivalent of putting a sock on the doorknob in college. 

He had Steve pinned to one of the lockers within seconds, not giving him a chance to speak before pulling him in for a hot, fervent kiss. Before tongues started fighting, Steve pulled away and panted, "You're gonna pay for that. And for earlier underneath the table." 

"Oh bite me Rogers."

Gladly, Steve sucked and pulled on Bucky's bottom lip with his teeth, earning a low moan. "Oh Stevie."

He felt hands gripping the little hairs on his neck as Bucky deepened the kiss and it drove him wild. He forgot what he was going to say next as Bucky roughly pulled open his shirt to suck on his collarbone. "Fuck Buck," was all he could say as the other man's mouth traveled downward, taking only one second to unbuckle Steve's belt and slide his pants down. 

He was an expert at getting Steve's clothes off apparently. 

As Bucky went to work, Steve's hands just tugged on the other man's silky hair, unable to think of anything other than his partner's hot, wet mouth around him. "Fu-," he was cut off and lost all sense of reality as a wave of pleasure shot through him, Bucky eagerly swallowing it like a hungry animal. He could feel him smiling around his length. 

"You good Rogers?"

"I could do this all day," Steve panted breathlessly.


	3. Chapter 3

Stark frowned at the chart on his clipboard, making a note on the edge of the paper. "This doesn't make any sense," he said quickly. 

"No it doesn't," agreed Dr. Banner softly. The two men looked at each other for guidance. "So what do you think we should do big guy?" Tony asked finally, breaking the tense silence that had formed between the two of them. 

Banner made notes on his own chart before pushing his glasses up and looking back at Stark. "The only thing we can do," he sighed calmly. "Run more tests."

~

Clint stared at his target from the scope of his gun, preparing to pull the trigger with a gentle press of his finger. Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder startled him, and he whirled around with almost inhuman reflexes. 

"Jesus Christ I should get you a bell Nat. You scared the shit out of me!"

"Calm down Barton. Not like you would've heard me anyway." 

He might've been almost deaf, but he could still hear the smirk in her words, and scowled at her before positioning himself back to his gun. "Who's the unfortunate soul this time," she asked casually as she crouched down next to him. 

"Just a little target practice," Clint replied, pulling the trigger. 

The BB pellet struck it's target, perfectly and silently. A man down below jumped in fright as his red baseball cap was shot into a nearby trashcan. He looked around in shock, but didn't think to look up at where the shot had come from. The man ran off down the street. 

"One of our informant's little buddies was waiting around out here harassing people. Thought I'd give him a warning taste before he did something stupid," Barton said, getting up to leave, satisfied that he had accomplished what he'd meant to do. 

Natasha followed him. "They've got Banner checking him out. His lawyer demanded that he be taken to the hospital for medical treatment, but Fury convinced her Banner was the best. He and Stark are running tests. Something's fishy to them."

"This whole thing is fishy Nat," Clint frowned as they made their way back inside. "I swear every time we think we've gone and figured things out, something new happens and we realize it's only the tip of this freaking iceberg," he continued. 

"Like the myth," Natasha mused. He looked at her in confusion. 

She met his eyes with equal intensity. "In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a giant water serpent with many heads, created by Typhon and Echidna. Every time you cut off one head, two more grew back in its place. One of the labors of Hercules was to kill the Hydra."

"And did he?"

She nodded. "How?" Taking a deep breath, she answered. "Taking it down from the source. Hercules burned the necks of the Hydra every time he cut off a head to keep it from reforming."

"So that's all we gotta do then." 

It was her turn to look at Clint in confusion. 

"Get to one of the top guys and burn him. Burn him so bad the rest of the them won't even know what to do anymore, and they'll fall on their own, which makes our jobs cut out for us," he said. 

"That's a lot easier said than done," Natasha replied uneasily.


	4. Chapter 4

"This is bad," Banner said finally, rubbing his face as he sat down in defeat at his desk. "You think?" Stark snapped, throwing his hands up in exasperation and in one sweeping motion, knocked all of his papers down from his desk. 

"Am I interrupting something here, Stark?" Fury's deep voice echoed in the lab. The two men looked up as the towering form of Nick Fury entered, alone, instead of being flanked by agents like he usually was. "Well?"

Tony walked over to him, though he was a couple of heads shorter, he made it clear he was on top at the moment. 

He paced around the lab, tapping his pen in the air. He pointed it at Fury. "Your guy, yeah, he's messed up. There's a lot more to him than meets the eye. We've been running tests, me and the big guy here, and somethings not right."

"Explain. I don't have time for this," Fury almost growled. "With all due respect sir," Stark continued, "You will make time for this because I can guarantee you're not gonna like it."

Dr. Banner pulled up their charts onto a screen on one wall of the lab. "He appears healthy, for all intents and purposes. At least I thought so as I conducted the physical. Medical history also normal - nothing so much as the flu when he was younger. The problem, sir, lies in his blood work."

Fury narrowed his eye. "Rogers said he looked like he was going through withdrawal. Which makes sense considering he's a dealer. Probably sampled his own product."

Stark shook his head. "True, our boy's been shooting up, but not those kind of drugs."

He pulled up some more charts onto the screen. "And what the fuck am I supposed to be looking at exactly?" Fury asked. 

"That, my friend, is snake venom. A mixture to be exact. From the blood of your little informant," Stark said matter-of-factly. 

Banner frowned. "We believe that they may be working on building up an immunity to the venom, or making testing to see if it could be sold as a drug."

Fury sighed. "Well Buddy Howell seems to be having some withdrawal symptoms. I'll have Barnes and Rogers go at him some more since he's been cleared by you two. Keep me posted."

He left, leaving the two men to work in comfortable silence.


	5. Chapter 5

"How about we go rattle Buddy's cage some more, babe? I bet he's figured out its better for him if he talks," Steve said, pulling away from Bucky before things got steamy again. 

He'd been pressed against the wall, hands roaming underneath Bucky's shirt, feeling the hard muscle and groaning into their kiss as their tongues danced. 

"Fine, but only if I get to play bad cop again." Bucky relented, releasing Steve and straightening up his clothes. "Of course baby," Steve said, returning the favor from earlier and smacking Bucky's ass. 

~

They walked out into the bullpen, not sure what to expect. Clint and Nat stood over a desk studying a scattered mess of papers; Nat was leaning on Clint's shoulder with her arm. 

Agent Coulson emerged from the interrogation room, and upon seeing Steve and Bucky, said, "He's all yours, Detectives."

"Thank you Agent." They exchanged respectful nods as Coulson passed. 

"Detectives!" A startled shout caused Bucky and Steve to whip their ups around. Agent Hill was frantically waving her arms. "There's something wrong! I think he's having a seizure of some sort," she said hurriedly. "Go get Fury," Steve said, stepping around her to go into the room, Bucky close in step behind him. 

Buddy was writhing on the floor, sweating and shaking. "Hey, hey Buddy!" Steve shouted, pinning the struggling man to the ground, sitting in his flailing legs and attempting to hold down his arms. One of them slapped him in the face with an inhuman amount of force, sending him reeling off and hitting his head on the wall. 

He heard Bucky curse and hiss, "Oh he'll pay for that later." He felt strong arms support him up. "I'm fine Buck," he choked out. "You get him."

That wasn't entirely true, and Bucky knew it. Steve's head lolled in a way that made him worry about a possible concussion. 

Nat and Clint had also made their way into the room, and once Bucky was confident that they could handle the man, dragged Steve out and plopped him into a chair. 

Grabbing an ice pack, he handed it to him. "I had him on the ropes Buck," Steve said as he gingerly held the ice pack to his head. "Sure you did Stevie," snorted Bucky, who rolled his eyes. 

He went back inside to check on Nat and Clint. Immediately, Buck could tell something was wrong - more wrong than before. 

Instead of a struggling mess of people, which he'd expected to see, he instead saw a motionless form in a tracksuit on its stomach, arms and legs spread. Natasha was carefully examining Buddy's limp arm, and turned it toward Buck so he could see what troubled her. 

Angry blue veins popped out of the flesh of the arm, which was red and irritated. A tattoo of a serpent, which hadn't been there before, stood out in black ink, throbbing. 

"Is that smoke coming out of that thing on his arm?" Fury's voice came from behind Bucky, incredulous. His eye grew big as he stared. 

Finally, after what was like hours of silent staring, he seemed to have composed himself again, for he cleared his throat and asked, "Just what the hell are we dealing with here?!"

No one could give him an answer.


	6. Chapter 6

"Get his body to Stark and Banner," Fury ordered, deep frown lines crossing into his prematurely old face. Clint moved first, closing Buddy's eyes before slinging one of his arms over his own shoulder and carrying the body as easily as a rag doll. 

Fury turned to Natasha and Bucky. "Get yourselves treated for shock. Agent Hill too," he said calmly, scraping his heels on the ground on his way out. Natasha took a shaky, wide-eyed breath before following him. Bucky was alone. 

"Buck?"

Steve leaned against the threshold of the door, wincing as he still held the melting ice pack to his head. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost," he said, coming over and squeezing the other man's hand. 

He shook his head. "Nothing Stevie," he muttered, pulling away. 

"Bucky?"

~

"Tell me something Stark," Fury said through gritted teeth. "First of all, patience oh great director of mine. Second of all, what the hell did you do to my body?"

Stark looked like something out of a horror movie; he was quite literally elbows deep into the bloody mass of what was once Buddy Howell. 

"The arteries and blood vessels are all shot to hell, like they were being torn apart from the inside out. Our boy here was sick for a long time, but something must have triggered it. 

"Something like?"

"Shock," Banner's voice came from behind Tony, studying yet more charts on a clipboard. "Or any kind of stress for the matter. Something set your guy off."

Fury frowned. Turning to Coulson, he said, "Pull the tapes from earlier. I want EVERYONE in my office. Nothing's going to get past six and a half pairs of eyes."

~

Fury took his place behind his desk, flanked on either side by Agents Hill and Coulson. Natasha and Clint sat on top of the desk to Fury's right, while Steve and Bucky took the chairs. All watched the screen with the same scrutiny and intensity as a cat watching a mouse scurry around. 

They hadn't gotten very far into the tapes when the door slammed open. 

"Director Fury, what the hell happened to my informant?! I said you could question him, not murder the man," Detective Wilson wasted no time. He was a hardened, no-nonsense narcotics cop with a past. 

"Sam, calm down," Steve said evenly. "Fuck off Rogers," he said quickly, eyes darting around the room. Bucky stood up quickly, a snarl on his lips. Steve pulled him down. "It's fine Buck, he's just upset."

"What the hell is this, a tea party?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "We're trying to find Buddy's killer. Stark thinks he might be on the tapes. Why don't you join us?"

Sam sat down, almost too calmly. "On your left," Steve said, noting the reflexes with which Sam had caught the pen thrown at him by Clint, who feigned innocence. Sam scowled, but there was a twinkle in his eye that showed his humorous side. 

"Can we get back to work please, it's tough watching these by myself with my one eye," Fury snapped. 

It wasn't long until Bucky shot up abruptly, stiffening. "Buck?" Steve reached a hand out to stroke the man's arm. 

"Pause the damn video," was all Bucky said. He got up and pointed at a form on the screen. "See anyone familiar?"

Fury swore. 

Punching the buttons on his phone with unnecessary force he growled, "I want Alexander Pierce in my office yesterday." He slammed the phone down with so much force that the table shook.


	7. Chapter 7

"Nicholas! Long time no see even though we work in the same godforsaken building.” Fury glowered at him. “Shut down you piece of shit,” he said, roughly pulling out a chair. Piercer narrowed his eyes while keeping his easy-going demeanor. Almost trying too hard to keep it at that. “I don’t think so Nick. You ought to be careful with how you talk to your superiors. Could get you into some hot water now.”

A hand slammed down on the table. “Good thing your superiors like me a lot more than they like you, Alex,” he growled, but made no move to stop him as he tried to leave. “Buddy Howell,” he called after the man, who paused at the doorway, silent. “So you did know him. That’s funny, because we have him on tape becoming visibly distressed at the sight of you. Now Pierce, we can do things the hard way and let you walk out that door, or you can make it easier on all of us and sit down and talk. I’m good with either option.”

Pierce smirked, looking inappropriately reptilian. “Hail HYDRA,” he whispered, turning once again to leave. “I’d stop this witch hunt right now Nick, or things could get ugly. You’ll regret it if you don’t. This is big, much bigger than you could possibly even dream of. Too big for the simple detectives’ office. Why don’t you get back to your robberies and your murders and rapes and drug busts like good little worker bees.”

Fury swore under his breath as the door closed.

~

“So Pierce is a fucking traitor, where’s the surprise there?” Natasha rolled her eyes, with Clint shooting her daggers with his eyes. “Nat be careful what you say. If this is legitimate information - “ “Which it is.” “then watch your mouth. There could be eyes and ears everywhere.” “Good thing I found this in your vic’s personal effects,” Tony said, entering with a small evidence bag in his hands. Clint took it, frowning. A small card was inside, with an address scribbled on it.

Sam grabbed it. “I know this place,” he muttered. “It’s a bar - real nasty one at that. Perfect place for dealers and people looking to score. And that’s only the surface of it. Prostitution, gambling, if its illegal by any law, it happens there. We should send in an undercover. Not me though, they know my face. Someone with enough experience to not get themselves killed. As you can imagine, they kinda hate cops. Wouldn’t be wise to send a woman - sorry Nat - but these guys aren’t the softies you can flirt with to avoid suspicion.”

Steve frowned, and glanced over at Bucky, who stood up immediately. “I’ll do it,” he said determinedly, taking the card from Sam. “Just tell me what I need to do. Aside from Natasha, I’m the only one of us with experience. Plus, no one has ever seen my face, so I set off any radars when I go.” Steve grabbed his arm, “Hey Buck, slow down. Can we talk about this please?” “What is there to talk about Steve? Come on this is the first lead on HYDRA we’ve had since Buddy, we can’t let this go to waste! I promise I won’t do anything risky. Just a little recon is all. Besides, even Pierce doesn’t know me all that well; I’ll bet he’s never seen my face. Don’t you worry about me, I can take care of myself.”

Steve wanted to protest with everything in him; something bad was gonna happen, he could feel it. But nonetheless, he relented, and that was all Fury needed to approve the mission: stake out the bar, see what was happening, who was there, and if there could be anything that would reveal more about HYDRA.


	8. Chapter 8

Bucky thrust his hands into his pockets as he went in, a cap covering much of his face. He felt assured, safe. Clint was in a tree outside of the building, ready to strike in case things went awry, Bucky could at least go outside and have some backup. Natasha handled the situation from the ground, watching the entrances and exits. Once he was inside though, he was on his own. Half of the windows of the bar were considerably darkened, and the other half boarded up with wood.

“Alright, I’m going in. Maria, do you have eyes on me?”

“Affirmative Barnes. I can see everything you’re seeing. Vitals look steady, you’re good to go. Be safe (that’s from Steve),” she said, watching from HQ. Fury stood on her other side, watching the screens that showed Bucky’s immediate surroundings, and things from his viewpoint, as well. He’d thought it best to assign Rogers to paperwork for now. Fair as it may not be, it kept things less heated. He knew the protectiveness anyone would have over a loved one, but didn’t think it would help the situation. Steve hadn’t been happy about the decision, but he didn’t argue. Maybe it would be better he didn’t watch what was happening; it was possible to be stressful enough to induce a heart attack.

Bucky looked around. It looked like any other bar, with booths and tables. The bar itself was clean, with a good number of patrons. By any and all accounts, it was regular bar. But it didn’t take long for Bucky to notice the hard edge in everybody’s eye, something that told him they were far more formidable opponents than they let on. And the HYDRA symbol that had appeared on Buddy’s arm littered the place, in obvious places and hidden away, too. He gulped, and asked for whiskey at the bar.

“Hey you!” A rough voice called, with a hint of an accent. Russian maybe.

Bucky ignored it, pretending to be engrossed in a game on the TV above the bar. Something hit his cap off of his head. “I said hey,” the same voice growled in his ear. He jumped, instincts taking over as he bent the man over the bar, like he’d done to so many perps. “Problem pal?” the man said, laughing. Bucky let him up, eyeing him.

The man was covered in tattoos, even on his bald head. He looked like one of those scumbags who were in and out of jail long enough to build frightening reputations.”The name is Alejandro,” he said, extending a marked arm. Bucky shook it. “Call me Jamie,” he said. Alejandro smirked, and before Bucky could say anything, the other man made a move, and suddenly Bucky heard a sickening crunch. The pain came a second later, in a shockwave that spread throughout his whole body. Cradling his arm, he kicked a table at Alejandro and headed for the door.

“Uh uh uh, not so fast, Detective.” Pierce said, locking the door behind him. “Did you realty think you wouldn’t be found out? Was Fury stupid enough to believe that even though I have never seen your face, that you could just waltz in here and spy? No no no, my dear James, no no. And now, I’m afraid you’ll have to pay for his foolishness. Rumlow!”

A pair of inhumanly strong hands seized Bucky, and threw him to the ground. His head bounced off the concrete with an awful snap. He saw spots as he fell unconscious, unable to even register the pain.

On the other side, things went silent. Agent Hill and Fury stood in shock as they stared at the screens, which had begun to resemble TV static. “Smart move,” Tony muttered, having just entered. “They knock him out, and there go our eyes and ears on the inside.”

“So who’s going to tell Rogers, because its not going to be me,” he continued, trying to make light, but there was fear and anguish in his eyes, and his words broke mid sentence. God they were fucked, and how the hell were they supposed to get Bucky back?


End file.
